The organization formerly know as The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (drugfree.org) has issued a report admitting that “support for medicalization and…for decriminalization and legalization of marijuana is widespread” and “support for each of these scenarios increased by anywhere from three to 11 percentage points when survey respondents were given more information about what medicalization, decriminalization and legalization of marijuana means.”

We only met one time. I was a server at Scarfone's Coal Fired Pizza in Davie, where I described myself as a "Center-left Republicrat with Libertarian tendencies." I hope you are well.

My purpose for emailing you is because of an issue I feel extremely passionate about. Before I begin I hope that you will keep an open mind before discarding this message, and carefully consider the undoubtedly revolutionary and controversial nature of this proposal. The proposal? The legalization of cannabis and industrial hemp within the state of Florida.

Please hear me out. I do not know your stance on cannabis in particular, but I believe I am right in saying that you and I are both of the same mind in the protection of our children from mood-altering substances until they are of age to comprehend the consequences of such consumption. Rest assured, what I am putting forward to you was crafted and modeled with the safety of our children in the foremost of its mind. While Colorado's Amendment 64 was rather simply worded, I chose Washington State's Initiative 502 as the best model for Florida's Responsible Implementation of Cannabis and Hemp Act (or, as I like to call it: FL-RICH).

I'm sure you're aware of the measures passed in the 2012 election by Colorado and Washington State, whereby they, the people, elected to do away with the prohibition of cannabis and establish legal markets that tax and regulate it in a manner similar to alcohol, where the State is the recipient of the accrued profits of a natural resource. This is what I propose for Florida.

Cannabis and Industrial Hemp are two of the most versatile and efficient natural resources known to man. The effects of cannabis consumption are objectively far less harmful than alcohol (though there will always be those select few, as with alcohol, who will undoubtedly make stupid decisions) and in fact Industrial Hemp can be utilized in the manufacture of everything from paper to drywall. Florida has an enormous opportunity to increase its revenue, free up our police officers to do REAL police work focusing on serious crimes (homicide, property damage, etc.) and most importantly of all, to reinvigorate our agricultural industry. Florida's subtropical climate is among the most ideal for the growing of cannabis year-round, which means that we will have a plentiful and constant crop yield, both of cannabis and industrial hemp. I'm sure you'll agree that since the Canker Epidemic we have taken too huge of a hit. We are practically relying on tourism to fund the state! Cannabis is California's largest cash crop, with an annual pull of $1.4 BILLION. Washington State's legal cannabis market stands to make $500 million in its first fiscal year. In addition to the monetary benefits, cannabis and industrial hemp will open Florida to a wealth of new job opportunities, as well as an influx of new and growing businesses who would thrive in a Floridian cannabis market.

While there are health benefits to cannabis (as in "medical marijuana") let's be honest here: Medical Marijuana is but the stepping stone to recreational legalization. So instead of dithering around with medical marijuana, we should simply establish a legal, taxed and regulated recreational cannabis market. Following the model of Washington State, a twenty-five percent tax (on the wholesale price) at each level of cannabis production, processing and purveyance, IN ADDITION to Florida's six percent sales tax, would go directly to the state fund.

You're asking how the state could regulate such a market without the necessary infrastructure to do so. It just so happens that we do: The Florida Department of Professional Business Regulations Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. Under the FL-RICH Act, this division would be rebranded the Division of Alcohol, Cannabis and Tobacco ("DACT") and would have sole oversight of the policies and procedures of the legalized Florida cannabis market.

By legalizing and regulating a naturally-occuring resource and removing the criminal stigma that has hampered it for decades, we can shut down the illegal cannabis black market within our borders. With affordable, LEGAL cannabis and users who will undoubtedly use responsibly, we will both remove the criminality of a basic human right that is no different from a shot or a mixed drink, and our law enforcement personnel will be able to handle tougher crimes. I think you will also agree with me when I say that there is a noticeable racial bias in the current status of cannabis. I went through the Misdemeanor Drug Court Program, and I can tell you plainly and truthfully that it is the single biggest waste of time, money and personnel that I have ever seen. Furthermore, I was one of only TWO white people in the program when I served my sentence.

I want our state to prosper, and to do that we need to look at every viable opportunity. This is the single most viable opportunity we can make for ourselves.

While I cannot attach the text of this Act to this message, I would certainly like for you to read it, if you so choose. I thank you for your time, and look forward to your reply.

My purpose for emailing you is because of an issue I feel extremely passionate about. Before I begin I hope that you will keep an open mind before discarding this message, and carefully consider the undoubtedly revolutionary and controversial nature of this proposal. The proposal? The legalization of cannabis and industrial hemp within the state of Florida.

Wasserman Schultz has no say in Hemp/marijuana laws in Florida. You better off sending that to your state congress or senate member(s). The only thing Debbie can do is try repeal laws at a federal level.

I'm aware, but Colorado and Washington are proof that this is going to have to start at the state level. The purpose of the letter was to get the idea into her head. She gets the idea, she reads the act. She reads the act, she can get others behind it. Long shot? Maybe. But I'd rather take a shot than not.

The Justice Department plans to change how it prosecutes some non-violent drug offenders, ending a policy of mandatory minimum prison sentences, in an overhaul of federal prison policy that Attorney General Eric Holder will unveil on Monday.

Holder will outline the status of a broad, ongoing project intended to improve Justice Department sentencing policies across the country in a speech to the American Bar Association in San Francisco.

"I have mandated a modification of the Justice Department's charging policies so that certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs, or cartels, will no longer be charged with offenses that impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences," Holder said in remarks prepared for delivery at the conference.

The United States imprisons a higher percentage of its population than other large countries, mostly because of anti-drug laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s.

I think that's fantastic. Our prisons are overflowing with people who don't really need to be there. Our prisons are a mess because we send every drug offender there. Who cares if that dude was using cocaine. Go find the person who sold it to him, don't arrest the user, go after the supplier!

__________________Beliefs - Christian. Anti-Republican. Anti-Gun. Complete separation of church and state. Freedom of speech. Freedom to practice any religion in public. Less focus on foreign lands and more focus on our own problems.

And goes against anybody who still believes the War on Drugs was a great idea. Just ask any Republican if Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs was a failure and watch them tip toe around the issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destructus86

I think that's fantastic. Our prisons are overflowing with people who don't really need to be there. Our prisons are a mess because we send every drug offender there. Who cares if that dude was using cocaine. Go find the person who sold it to him, don't arrest the user, go after the supplier!

Personally I feel if somebody wants to criminalize drugs, fine it like a parking ticket(not that I personally think that's what they should do but it would be an improvement on what we have).

Marijuana is one of the plants that has been proven to eliminate nuclear radiation and was used in cleaning Chernobyl similar to the sunflower plants. Thus for the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, cultivation of marijuana is a viable alternative since this plant absorbs the radiation. It is also viable to other places with regards on the laws of the states and the country that is going to be planted.

The earthquake in Japan and the resulting nuclear power plant disaster at Fukushima has rocked the entire world with the threat and spread of nuclear waste contamination. The unknown amount of different hazardous chemicals has been released into the atmosphere and ocean that threaten our food chain for the long foreseeable future. Marijuana may be one of the alternative keys reducing this damage we all face.

Many people know that the cannabis plant has amazing healing powers; however the same plant can literally “eat away” nuclear waste. From the flower’s ability to aid and keep people from going blind, to the woody core of the stem’s ability to build fire proof homes and much more. Now, we can add another use to the list: Marijuana as a tool to clean up nuclear contamination around Chernobyl.

Historically in 1998, the Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP), Phytotech, and the Ukraine’s Institute of Bast Crops planted industrial marijuana to help remove contaminants in the soil near Chernobyl. Marijuana is one of the best plants for a process called phytoremediation that has been mentioned before. It is a term coined by Dr. Ilya Raskin of Rutgers University’s Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment. Dr. Raskin had been sent to examine food safety at the Chernobyl site.

Phytotech specializes in phytoremediation, the general term for using phyto (plants) to remediate (clean up) polluted sites. Phytoremediation has been used to remove radioactive elements from soil and water at former weapons producing areas. It can also be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, and toxins leaching from landfills. Plants break down or degrade organic pollutants and stabilize metal contaminants by acting as filters or traps. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that more than 30,000 sites in the United States alone require hazardous waste treatment. Since nowadays there are so many pollutants and nuclear radiations everywhere on the entire earth and sea we might expect there are many more locations almost everywhere.

Founded in 1931, the Institute of Bast Crops is now the leading research institution in the Ukraine, working on seed breeding, seed growing, cultivating, harvesting and processing hemp (marijuana) and flax. The Bast Institute has a genetic bank that includes 400 varieties of hemp from various regions of the world. Newer technologies in hemp harvesting and processing are also being developed at the institute whose library contains more than 55,000 volumes mainly on hemp growing and flax growing. “Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants we have been able to find,” said Slavik Dushenkov, a research scientist with Phytotech.

The company Phytotech lists the benefits of phytoremediation (compared to traditional remedial technologies):

Lower cost
Applicability to a broad range of metals
Potential for recycling the metal-rich biomass
Minimal environmental disturbance
Minimization of secondary air and waterborne wastes
Nobody knows how far the extension of the contamination from the nuclear power plant disaster at Fukushima because the tsunami and wind bring together the radioactivity almost everywhere on earth.Thus it is hard to think about the tons of nuclear contaminated water getting pumped into our mutually shared ocean and how it is going to broadly effect a great deal of our ecosystems.

Growing cannabis can improve the soil when it grown as a break crop i.e. to relieve and revitalize the soil between crops. Farmers are getting a 27% increased yield after the marijuana crop because industrial marijuana puts nitrogen back into the soil, suppress weeds and diseases, and clean contaminates out of the planet, then you would realize this plant is medicine for our Mother Earth.

There are more plants that could clean nuclear radiation after we had discussed on sunflower, sansevieria previously and marijuana in this post. Thanks for reading.